Truth Is Very Dangerous To Come By

The problem of the age — fake news — has deep roots in the 20thCentury, award-winning historian Amanda Vaill argues. They lie with famed writer Ernest Hemingway and the Spanish Civil War, a groundbreaking event in the history of news coverage.

Fake news, seemingly the major theme of American political debate over the past year, has the urgent feel of a new problem. It is not — it has afflicted us for decades.